The first period of Soviet foreign policy was strictly ideological, where their actions were determined by their aspirations instead of practicality. ... " The Commintern implied Twenty one conditions for admission in to the group, something that was intended to centralize and strengthen the parties control and further their chance of revolution. ... The second period of Soviet Foreign policy came in 1925 and was labeled socialism in one country; a pragmatic policy that was a result of Russia's need to progress and become strong compared to the rest of Europe. ... The Soviet Union f...

• Word Count: 1433
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Historian André Fontaine, moreover, sees the starting point of the war in 1917 with the Bolshevik Revolution, and suggests that it was mainly due to the aggressive policies of the USSR in foreign policy, dictated by its Communist ideology. ... On the other hand, some other revisionist historians point at the US foreign policy as the culprit of the origins of the Cold War, culminating in the McCarthy witch-hunts of the 1950s. ... He bases this hypothesis on the historical facts such as the violation of Yalta and Potsdam agreements, the occupation and imposed Soviet control in Eastern E...

• Word Count: 990
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

The sheer efficiency of this control could easily stamp out any move of meaning opposition to him. ... Stalin's policy of collectivism entailed the confiscation of the bulk of the land and farm machinery of the peasants into the control of the state. ... Stalin saw the Kulaks as a threat to the enforcement of his agricultural policy and in turn to his revolution. ... One practical result was the strengthening of the family as a vehicle for political and ideological control. ... The underlying motive for Stalin's foreign policy was to provide external security for the internal constru...

• Word Count: 2410
• Approx Pages: 10
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

War communism was the policy pursued by The Bolshevik party during the Russian Civil War from 1918 to 1920, until Lenin introduced the New Economic Policy. ... There has also been some debate over the justificaiton of this rather brutal policy. ... The next stage was feudalism, where society is controlled by the landowning aristocracy. ... The failure of the economic measures in this period led to the New Economic Policy. ... Some historians such as Peter Boettke have interpreted war communism as a series of short-term emergency measures to help the Bolsheviks keep Russia under control and...

• Word Count: 2081
• Approx Pages: 8
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

By the middle of 1918 these various groups held more than two-thirds of Russian soil, and threatened to take control of the central regions currently under Bolshevik control. ... They did so through a vast policy of nationalisation, whereby all banks, wholesale trade and large enterprises (and later, small enterprises) were brought under state control. ... And again, these responses are an example of how the new regime was able to adjust its policies and ideas as the situation demanded. ... However, this view ignores the fact that the actual idea's and policies behind the new and ...

• Word Count: 956
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Under Lenin industrialisation was initialised by aiming to recover the economy from the toils of war and the necessary policy of War communism. ... Stalin focused on moving the Russian economy forward through his use of 5 year plans (nearly identical to the format of the GOELRO plan) and his policy of collectivisation. Much of the policy of Collectivisation was envisaged by Stalin himself and in the short run was a disaster, starting a 10 year long food shortage and economic deficit. ... The wide and varied methods of control employed by Stalin included terror, censorship, propaganda and centr...

• Word Count: 1841
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Yet many of the Bolshevik policies skewed the lines between socialism and authoritarian rule. ... Idealism was thrown away by realism in Russia as Lenin failed to convince the whole of Russia of his policies, meeting much resistance in a country already exhausted from World War I. ... "After the outbreak of the Civil War, the Cheka became an organ of terror, dispensing summary justice including executions, making mass arrests, and taking hostages at random in areas that had come under White control or were suspected of leaning towards the Whites."" Russia continued into a spiraling path away...

• Word Count: 1036
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Their failures as leaders included policies that either pleased or benefited the people. ... The government's continued half-hearted attempts to reform Russian society, combined with its resolute refusal to compromise on any matter of power and control put Russia on a course toward revolt. ... Russia's backward position relative to the West, its lack of arms, poor training, and corruption in the high levels of government and the army translated into such military losses that Tsar Nicholas II decided to take direct control of the . ...

• Word Count: 356
• Approx Pages: 1
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

The defeat in the Russo-Japanese War and the failure of the Duma to control Nicholas" inefficient rule both created misery amongst the Russian people. ... There are several factors which isolated the Tsar and ignited the revolution: the Tsar's role is commander in Chief linked the failure of the army with the monarchy; the role of Nicholas's wife, a German and Rasputin, a suspected German agent, created much hatred as they took control while the Tsar was at war; the state of the army, trained inefficiently and affected by lack of food and supplies, deteriorated; the failure of the Du...

• Word Count: 770
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

The defeat in the Russo-Japanese War and the failure of the Duma to control Nicholas" inefficient rule both created misery amongst the Russian people. ... There are several factors which isolated the Tsar and ignited the revolution: the Tsar's role is commander in Chief linked the failure of the army with the monarchy; the role of Nicholas's wife, a German and Rasputin, a suspected German agent, created much hatred as they took control while the Tsar was at war; the state of the army, trained inefficiently and affected by lack of food and supplies, deteriorated; the failure of the Du...

• Word Count: 766
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

After Stalin's death in 1953, Stalin's successor Nikita Khrushchev repudiated his policies and condemned Stalinism. ... During this period, Stalin advanced the policy of building socialism in one country, in contrast to Trotsky's theory of permanent revolution. ... From then on Stalin can be said to have exercised control over the party and the country, although this was not complete until the Great Purge of 1936-38. He replaced Lenin's New Economic Policy with a system of centrally-ordained 5 Year Plans, which called for a highly ambitious program of state guided crash ind...

• Word Count: 1356
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Gorbachev abandoned the "Brezhnev Doctrine- "the Soviet Union's policy of intervening with military force, if necessary, to preserve Communist rule in the region. ... The U.S. long-term policy of containing Soviet expansion while encouraging democratic reform in Central and Eastern Europe through scientific and cultural exchanges, information policy, and the United States' own example, provided invaluable support to the peoples of East Central Europe in their struggle for freedom. ... The fact that the reality of life in Russia under War Communism' (food requisitioning and...

• Word Count: 2359
• Approx Pages: 9
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

These new leaders preached communism which changed the societal culture throughout Russia; however, many Russian peasants were hesitant toward the new government ideas and policies. ... During these times, the USSR lacked funding and therefore had an immense control over the subject and distribution of films domestically and internationally. ... The Russian government used their control over the film industry to slowly apply the new socialistic ideals across Russian grounds. ... In 1921 Russia passed the New Economic Policy (NEP) which allowed economic competition so the Russians would start...

• Word Count: 2028
• Approx Pages: 8
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

However, he held less influence and importance in the dealing with the problems that made the retention of power such a difficult task, his governmental policies making him unpopular. ... The inherent weakness of the Provisional government and the poor leadership of Kerensky as the Minister of War, (and later as the Prime Minister) are also factors giving the Bolsheviks an opportunity to seize power and control. ... It lasted from June 1918 to March 1921 (New Economic Policy- NEP). ... The policy, enforced to appease the peasants by encouraging them to produce more so that the surplus could be...

• Word Count: 1454
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Despite the obvious communist incentives of the revolutionary thought such as the abolition of redemption payments, such economic policies only brought Russia into " a state of ruin" as Lenin claimed. ... Although the Red Army crushed the revolt, Lenin realized he had to make changes if the Bolsheviks were to stay in control. In order to improve the poor living conditions of the Russian people, improve industrial output, so Lenin could stay in power the New Economic Policy was introduced in 1921. ... The originally communistic goals of the revolution when implemented caused great econom...

• Word Count: 926
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

For this brief time, the culture of the avant-garde was synonymous with official cultural policy of the Soviets. ... In 1918 Lenin and the Bolsheviks were in full control; they had won the revolution and now had the ability to erect momentous statues and buildings to celebrate a Revolution that would change the entire world forever. ... According to Lodder, Narkompros was in charge with the task of "formulating the theoretical basis of a cultural policy for Socialist Russia" (50). ... Like Narkompros, the Vkhutemas art institution had the daunting task of creating a new cultural policy ...

• Word Count: 4641
• Approx Pages: 19
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

This particular institution was characterized by its increasing of central control of the economy, the nationalization of banks, factories and the abolition of private trade. Lenin made it state policy to force the demand of grain below market prices, in order to control the peasantry in the country who where hard to keep under Bolshevik rule. ... To retreat from the brutality of War Communism Lenin set up the New Economic Policy (NEP), which lowered taxes, stopped the taking of grain, and reestablished local private trade. ...

• Word Count: 1728
• Approx Pages: 7
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

In May of 1917, the reformed provisional government took control of power. ... Lenin cleverly used propaganda to convince the people to support Bolshevik policy. ... This, too, contributed to the sudden majority the Bolsheviks achieved at the congress of soviets in November of 1917, which gave Lenin new control of the government. ... This constant threat to the Bolsheviks resulted in a more centralized government system, instead of Lenin's original idea to put the people in control. ... Also prominent in winning the civil war was the concept of war communism, in which the government ...

• Word Count: 975
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

It was generally perceived that only absolute state control such as that proposed by Stalin's five year plans would manage these resources well enough to achieve the industrialisation wanted by many communists. ...

• Word Count: 5589
• Approx Pages: 22
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Once in power, Stalin began a drive to industrialize and modernize the Soviet Union, with a Five-Year Plan (1927-32) based on Marxist principles championing government control of the economy. ... Kirov rejected this notion, but at the Fifteenth Party Congress in 1934 many members expressed disapproval of Stalin's tight control, and a small percentage of the delegates actually voted against re-electing him the Central Committee. ...

• Word Count: 5151
• Approx Pages: 21
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate